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Streaking Hunter-Reay carries American flag in IndyCar’s fast lane

July 15, 2012

Ryan Hunter-Reay's recent run of success has included three consecutive wins in the Izod IndyCar Series. Photo by LAT Photographic

Ryan Hunter-Reay is on a three-race winning streak in the Izod IndyCar Series, and that puts him in some pretty select company. It also puts him on a fast track to what could be the series championship.

Consider that, of the 21 drivers to win three races in a row prior to 2012, only Paul Tracy in 1997, A.J. Allmendinger in 2006 and Scott Dixon in 2007 failed to win an Indy-car title in the same year.

Hunter-Reay enters the Edmonton Indy on July 22 with a three-race winning streak on a variety of racetracks (the flat Milwaukee Mile, the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway with compound banking and the 1.75-mile, 11-turn Toronto street course). He’s riding the 25th three-race winning streak in Indy-car racing since 1979.

Hunter-Ray has parlayed his success into a series-leading 154 points accumulated over the three events in the past month. That vaulted the 31-year-old Floridian into the series-championship lead with 335 points.

Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, won three road-/street-course events early in the season and is 34 points back in second. Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves is third (46 points behind).

“I don’t know if I would say I expected to be the points leader,” said Hunter-Reay, who drives the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car for Andretti Autosport. “I certainly expected to be contending for the championship. It’s just nice to see that this team is reaching its potential because the potential has been there. It’s a great group, and we have even better performances in us in the future.

“So it’s been a lot of fun, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. It’s lap by lap and just concentrate on being solid.”

Hunter-Reay has been a model of consistency over the course of the 10 races. Deduct mechanical issues at Indianapolis (27th place) and Texas (21st place), and he’s finished in the top 10 in six of the other seven races. Qualifying in the top five in five events has certainly contributed to the results, too.

Sébastien Bourdais was the last driver to win four in a row at the outset of the 2006 Champ Car season, and he’ll join Hunter-Reay and 23 other competitors on the 2.224-mile, 13-turn City Centre Airport course July 20-22. Of Hunter-Reay’s eight Indy-car victories, four have been on ovals and the others on road/street courses.

“That’s what IndyCar has always been for me even when I was a fan of the series before I even started racing g-karts,” said Hunter-Reay, who has finished seventh and fifth in the past two years at Edmonton with Andretti Autosport. “I just loved the fact that every weekend you see the cars on a different type of track, and it’s constantly changed up.

“To do well in the series and in this championship, you’ve got to kind of master it all. We have some great racetracks coming up, with two road courses, two street circuits and an oval. I love them all. When you have a good car on an oval, that is some of the most fun you can have in a race car. I’ve found some success on road and street circuits as well. I don’t know what my stronger suit is, really.”

The last American to win four consecutive races was Al Unser Jr. in 1990; his streak started at Toronto. And the last American Izod IndyCar Series champion was Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006.

“I’m definitely honored to be carrying the American flag at the front right now, and every time I get on the podium I raise it because I’m proud of it,” Hunter-Reay said. “I think what hits home for me is when I was a kid, before I started racing go-karts, my dad took me to a couple of Indy-car races in Miami and I watched the series as a fan of the series. I was really focused on the American drivers.

“I liked to watch Michael [Andretti], Bobby Rahal, Rick Mears, Al Unser Jr.—the big names. I feel like now that I’m in IndyCar and doing well, hopefully there is some kid sitting there doing the same thing, so that’s kind of cool.”